Exceptional Comments I

Have I told y'all how highly I think of you? The comments here are regularly better and more insightful than my own posts--and that's what makes me enjoy coming back.

Anyway, two comments really should be noticed. Since they are both getting nearer the bottom of the screen than the top, I thought I would hilight them. They come from the PS post a little further down the line.

This first comment is from Joe Edmon and is posted in the extended section.

The first comment was left by Joe Edmon, who, for this brief moment is slipping out of his identity as Remy Logan, to leave us with some words of absolute brilliance.

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I'm a Navy vet, and so feel I have earned the right to respond. This has nothing to do with vets having a unique right to voice an opinion. Most vets don't feel particularly privileged because they served. Feeling priviliged would go against the constitution we swore to defend on the day we signed up.

I know of only one or two veterans who feel that his service uniquely qualifies him for anything more than a free visit to the local VA hospital. This vet, and few of his buddies are trying to stifle dissent by claiming a unique privilege, and have thus tarred the rest of us.

The rest of the vets who are now saying that they have "earned the right" are merely responding (with a nuanced sarcasm) to this one vet who feels particularly privileged because of his 4 months in a war zone. The vets don't mean to imply that you don't have the same rights. Every one of them (the guys at least) would rather give up a left testicle than see what is happening now. The crux of the Constitution is in the words from the Declaration of Independence -- "All men are created equal." This country is founded on the notion that in a free society no man has special privilege due to his birth or office. If veterans were to derive a special privilege then we have fought in vain.

What you are seeing on the Internet and airwaves, are veterans fighting a new battle, with words not guns. One of our "brothers" has forgotten that being a veteran does not give him any special privilege or unique qualifications for anything. It is up to us to remind him of that.

What the Dems don't understand about this whole veteran thing, is that Kerry, by claiming special privilege, is making us all look bad. When the Dems call pro-war non-vets "chicken hawks" they are denigrating the service of every man and woman who has put his or her life on the line for the last 200-plus years protecting this country and its citizens. Every time a Dem claims that someone has special privilege because of their service that Dem is showing disrespect for the Constitution and all those who have given up their lives defending it.

Unfortunately, vets who are pro-war must make claim to our veteran status so that we can overcome the cries of "chicken hawk." Hopefully, in November we will be able to go back into hiding.

The only thing us vets ask from you is that every once in awhile you listen to one of our war stories. And that you listen to it intently, even if you've heard it before.

Posted by zombyboy at August 27, 2004 05:37 PM